After dragging ourselves out of bed we made our way into Berlin. We
bought our tickets from the booth in the underground - this time
remembering to actually validate them (something we didn't do in Vienna
or Rome - so we'll still have tickets for next time!) we jumped on the
underground and made our way to our first stop at Alexanderplatz.
Our first impressions were mixed - the city looked quite run down and1970's style prefabbed buildings were everywhere. We decided the bestway to see our surroundings was to make our way up to the 250m high TVtower that looks over the city. From here we could see the vastdifferences in the landscape. Most of the historical buildings in Berlinhave been rebuilt, although some have been left in ruin as a reminder ofthe city's past. Many areas are being redeveloped or are in desperateneed of renovation where as the main strip leading up to the Tier Gardenlook a bit like buildings from around Europe transplanted into oneplace. Potsdamer Platz, on the other hand, could have been liftedstraight from America with its glass fronted sky scrapers - if it wasn'tfor a great slab of Berlin wall in the middle of the path serving as aconstant reminder of the areas history.
We also visited 'Check Point Charlie' after a bit of wandering in thewrong direction as by this time it had started to get dark. The mix ofcultures in Berlin is evident and is somehow hard to believe this isGermany's capital as it still seems very much a work in progress. Thatsaid, it is certainly somewhere I think we'll revisit as I'm sure thatin our lifetimes redevelopment will progress at such a rate that